There are three types of editing: copyediting, line editing and development editing. A new book will always need copyediting, no matter how competent the author. Depending on the author’s writing skills line editing and/or developmental editing may also be required.
Copyediting
Copyediting (sometimes called ‘proofreading’) is essential, even for experienced and competent stylists. Basically, everyone needs copyediting to complete the final phase of a writing project. We all miss the odd piece of punctuation, and we often miss hyphenation and compound words. We usually aren’t sure about how to use Chicago Manual of Style or other style sheets required by publishers and we may write alright instead of all right, alot instead of a lot, or cliché instead of cliched. Most writers leave behind a swarm of mistakes that make the author look incompetent. Copyeditors comb through a text to eradicate most mistakes—even they sometimes miss a few. Copyediting is a tough business.
Line Editing
Line Editing (sometimes called copy editing) helps to create the magic within a sentence, paragraph, or chapter. It’s where the editor converts passive language into active language (he was going becomes he went), or moves text around a little so the description of a character comes first within a paragraph rather than too late to have a good effect on the reader’s consciousness. Line editing can create good rhythm within the chosen style of the author and can ‘unify’ the sound of the language, and bring about the sense of trueness within a text. It’s more than a lot of authors have patience for, but is a massive boost for readers, whom authors tend to ignore during the writing of their books.
Development Editing
Development Editing (sometimes called substantive editing) is usually done by an experienced author/editor who knows how to bring out the best in a scene, or develop an idea, or round out a character by showing instead of telling, cutting or reducing redundant exposition, so that the meaning can ‘breath’—like thinning out a forest floor. First-time authors often lack this basic instinct and need to work with an editor to develop it. Sometimes authors need a developmental editor their whole lives—ask Thomas Woolf, F. Scott Fitzgerald or Ernest Hemingway whose careers were greatly enhanced by the brilliant development editing of Maxwell Perkins (see the movie “Genius” with Jude Law and Colin Firth).
Editing is expensive and time-consuming but is usually the right way to go about doing the ‘right thing’ for your book. Good or bad editing can earn or discourage positive reviews, and either build word-of mouth readership or drive readers away. AuthorScope’s editors are published authors so they are sensitive to a writer’s pride and always bare this in mind while they help refine, buff and polish the craftsmanship and marketability of a writer’s work. Below are the editorial services that AuthorScope offers.